Novel Mineral Scale Deposition Model Under Different Flow Conditions with or Without Scale Inhibitors

Mineral scale formation causes billions of dollars’ loss every year due to production losses and facility damages in the oil and gas industry. Accurate predictions of when, where, how much, and how fast scale will deposit in the production system and how much scale inhibitor is needed are critical for scale management. Unfortunately, there is not a sophisticated scale deposition model available, potentially due to the challenges below. First, an accurate thermodynamic model is not widely available to predict scale potential at extensive ranges of temperature, pressure, and brine compositions occurring in the oilfield. Second, due to the complex oilfield operation conditions with large variations of water, oil and gas flow rates, tubing size, surface roughness, etc., wide ranges of flow patterns and regimes can occur in the field and need to be covered in the deposition model. Third, how scale inhibitors impact the mineral deposition process is not fully understood. The objective of this study is to overcome these challenges and develop a model to predict mineral deposition at different flow conditions with or without scale inhibitors. Specifically, after decades of efforts, our group has developed one of the most accurate and widely used thermodynamic model, which was adopted in this new deposition model to predict scale potential up to 250 °C, 1,500 bars, and 6 mol/kg H2O ionic strength. In addition, the mass transfer coefficients were simulated from laminar (Re < 2300) to turbulent (Re > 3,100) flow regimes, as well as the transitional flow regimes (2300 < Re < 3,100) which occur occasionally in the oilfield using sophisticated flow dynamics models. More importantly, the new deposition model also incorporates the impacts of scale inhibitors on scale deposition which was tested and quantified with Langmuir-type kink site adsorption isotherm. The minimum inhibitor dosage required can be predicted at required protection time or maximum deposition thickness rate. This model also includes the impacts of entry-region flow regime in laminar flow, surface roughness, and laminar sublayer stability under turbulent flow. The new mineral scale deposition model was validated by our laminar tubing flow deposition experiments for barite and calcite with or without scale inhibitors and laminar-to-turbulent flow experiments in literature. The good match between experimental result and model predictions show the validity of our new model. This new mineral scale deposition model is the first sophisticated model available in the oil and gas industry that can predict mineral scale deposition in the complex oilfield conditions with and without scale inhibitors. This new mineral scale deposition model will be a useful and practical tool for oilfield scale control.